Commemoration of Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, 1099 What does this desire and this inability of ours proclaim to us read more

Commemoration of Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, 1099 What does this desire and this inability of ours proclaim to us but that there was once in man a genuine happiness, of which nothing now survives but the mark and the empty outline; and this he vainly tries to fill from everything that lies around him, seeking from things that are not there the help that he does not get from those that are present? Yet they are quite incapable of filling the gap, because this infinite gulf can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object -- that is, God, Himself. He alone is man's veritable good, and since man has deserted Him it is a strange thing that there is nothing in nature that has not been capable of taking His place for man: stars, sky, earth, elements, plants, cabbages, leeks, animals, insects, calves, serpents, fever, plague, war, famine, vices, adultery, incest. And since he has lost the true good, everything can equally appear to him as such -- even his own destruction, though that is so contrary at once to God, to reason, and to nature.

Jesus is our mouth, through which we speak to the Father; He is our eye, through which we see the read more

Jesus is our mouth, through which we speak to the Father; He is our eye, through which we see the Father; He is our right hand through which we offer ourselves to the Father. Unless He intercedes, there is no intercourse with God.

Beginning a short series on topics of Christian apologetics: If we are prepared to admit, even as a possibility, read more

Beginning a short series on topics of Christian apologetics: If we are prepared to admit, even as a possibility, that Jesus was divine, or even that without being divine he was unique, then we must, as a matter of logic, discard any attempt to discredit the Gospel accounts on the ground that they record miracles.

Continuing a short series on forgiveness: When on my day of life the night is falling, And, in read more

Continuing a short series on forgiveness: When on my day of life the night is falling, And, in the winds from unsunned spaces blown, I hear far voices out of darkness calling My feet to paths unknown, Thou who hast made my home of life so pleasant Leave not its tenant when its walls decay; O Love Divine, O Helper ever-present, Be Thou my strength and stay! Be near me when all else is from me drifting; Earth, sky, home's pictures, days of shade and shine, And kindly faces to my own uplifting The love that answers mine. I have but Thee, my Father! let Thy spirit Be with me then to comfort and uphold; No gate of pearl, no branch of palm I merit, Nor street of shining gold. Suffice it if -- my good and ill unreckoned, And both forgiven through Thy abounding grace - I find myself by hands familiar beckoned Unto my fitting place.

Commemoration of Richard Baxter, Priest, Hymnographer, Teacher, 1691 The Spirit was the power manifested in the resurrection of Christ read more

Commemoration of Richard Baxter, Priest, Hymnographer, Teacher, 1691 The Spirit was the power manifested in the resurrection of Christ (Rom. 1:4), in the inner life of man (Rom. 15:13; Eph. 3:16), and in the preaching of the word (I Thess. 1:5; 1 Cor. 2:4). He is the Spirit of life, both now and hereafter (Gal. 6:8; I Cor. 15:45); and the Spirit of assurance, the guarantee of the new life, whereby man obtains confidence towards God and courage in the face of the world's evil (II Cor. 1:22; Rom. 5:5, 8:16, 23; Eph. 1:13, 4:30). Man, therefore, as the dwelling-place of the Spirit, is the inalienable possession of God (I Cor. 3:16, 17, 6:19). (Continued tomorrow).

Commemoration of Charles de Foucauld, Hermit, Servant of the Poor, 1916 Race highlights the fact that in our read more

Commemoration of Charles de Foucauld, Hermit, Servant of the Poor, 1916 Race highlights the fact that in our congregational life we usually do not reflect the variety of cultures. There are Asian, West Indian, and Anglo-Saxon congregations worshiping and meeting close to each other. These groups meet at work and in school, but not always in church. If the church is middle-class and intellectual in the language of the services, in the music employed, in the life-style expected of Christians, in its leadership, and in the methods of presenting the gospel, then the whole atmosphere is such as to repel those who are not middle-class and intellectual. They feel out of place and unwanted, even if they are given a friendly greeting at the door. The life of the New Testament Church was evidence of the supernatural; God was in their midst. The power of Christ was a reality. The fellowship could not be explained in simple natural terms. A church divided on social and racial lines is not evidence for the supernatural, but for the simply human and social.

You are a man, not God; you are human, not an angel. How can you expect to remain always in read more

You are a man, not God; you are human, not an angel. How can you expect to remain always in a constant state of virtue, when this was not possible even for an angel of heaven, nor for the first man in the Garden?

If criticism has made such discoveries as to necessitate the abandonment of the doctrine of plenary inspiration, it is not read more

If criticism has made such discoveries as to necessitate the abandonment of the doctrine of plenary inspiration, it is not enough to say that we are compelled to abandon only a "particular theory of inspiration..." We must go on to say that that "particular theory of inspiration" is the theory of the apostles and of the Lord, and that in abandoning it we are abandoning them.

Feast of Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 461 There was no point of controversy between Jesus and the read more

Feast of Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 461 There was no point of controversy between Jesus and the Jews; Jesus brought no new doctrine unto them. Jesus said, What the masters in Israel teach, what the Pharisees and the Scribes teach, is perfectly correct. There was no dogma which was the cause of controversy between Jesus and the nation; there was no new custom that Jesus introduced: He went into the Temple every day, He observed the ordinances and festivals of Israel. What was the subject of dispute and controversy between Jesus and the Jews? It was no doctrine, it was no innovation, it was Jesus Himself whom they rejected. There was an antipathy in them to the person of Jesus: it was the Lord Himself whom they hated, because they hated the Father... But Jesus knew... that it was because He was one with the Father, because He was the express image of His being, because He was the perfect manifestation of the character of God, that they hated Him; and therefore Jesus was pained, not because they hated Him, but because they hated in Him the Father.